1. CASE STUDY
MetricStream ISO 9000 IN ELECTRICITY TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
Overview
This electric utility, a city department in a southern state, has created a name for itself by setting and
meeting aggressive performance goals as well as taking up challenges in technologies for the future
and creating the top performing renewable energy program in the nation.
Recognizing the importance of achieving the highest level of quality service and reliability to its large
high-tech manufacturing customers, the energy company has embarked on a quality enhancement
plan that will be designed by experts in this field. The Electric Service Delivery (ESD) group of the
company is striving to obtain ISO 9000 certification and is implementing a comprehensive quality
management program based on Six Sigma and Total Quality Management principles. The industrial
customers of the utility, many being ISO 9000 compliant themselves, welcome the initiative as the
certification will provide a solid structure for assessing and maintaining the organization as a high
Customer
quality service organization. The registration is significant because the organization believes it
ONE OF THE FIRST ELECTRIC UTILITY TO OBTAIN ISO
9001:2000 REGISTRATION FOR ELECTRICITY TRANS- will be the first public utility in the country to obtain ISO 9001: 2000 registration of electricity trans-
MISSION AND DISTRIBUTION PROCESSES mission and distribution processes.
Benefits Challenge
Efficiency: The utility expects to see the cycle times The organization identified management of controlled documents, training processes and equipment
on many quality processes to drop by over 50% as calibration as the core area for focus for the first phase of the quality program followed by issue man-
the automated workflows will take the documents agement, corrective actions and internal auditing processes.
and information through the prescribed lifecycle
without any delays. Email notifications and a task In the past, the organization had achieved significant improvements in its performance metrics (such
list on the home portal page for the user will improve as interruption frequency and duration indices) by refining work processes, stepped-up maintenance,
responsiveness and proactive participation.
equipment upgrades and improved training. But the traditional manual and paper-based mechanisms
being used to manage these processes were falling behind the scale at which the organization was
Visibility: With MetricStream the organization will operating and the level of performance demanded by ISO 9000. Quality and SOP documents were
have complete visibility into all quality and compli-
ance processes. The status and progress of
being controlled using complicated spreadsheets and paper documents. Equipment calibration pro-
any document, activity or issue will be visible and cedures were not being implemented consistently. Employee training was largely informal with poor
predictable. visibility into training effectiveness.
Compliance: There is a significant increase in the With paper-based systems for managing issues and corrective actions it was difficult to manage and
organizations confidence for achieving ISO 9000 as track the paper trail for a specific issue and to ensure that a corrective action was implemented. If
the quality processes will be well documented with a stage involved multiple participants, there was no easy way to collaborate and work on a CAPA
systematic change control. The performance metrics simultaneously. Moreover, there was no way to track the status of an issue and to know where a
made available by the solution will provide a sound case had been bottlenecked. Moreover, the quality managers and the executive management had no
basis for continuous improvement. measurable data to evaluate the quality processes.
The division concluded that the quality infrastructure had to be upgraded to support the quality initia-
tive. Automating the key quality processes was imperative to ensure successful ISO 9000 accredita-
tion.
Solution
MetricStream solutions will automate the core quality management processes within the organization
and provide real-time visibility into quality metrics driving the ISO 9000 compliance program.
The organization will achieve end-to-end automation for the management and control for all types
of documents such as SOPs, quality reports, work instructions and regulatory filings. All documents
will be stored in the MetricStream Document Management module’s central repository with clearly
defined lifecycle stages, templates, classification methods, search parameters, numbering schemes,
revision control, association and obsolescence rules. The access to the repository will be centrally
managed with policy-driven rights based on roles and responsibilities.
MetricStream Equipment Management modules will automate calibration scheduling to ensure that
equipment is routinely calibrated and operates within the parameters necessary for reliable perfor-
mance. The workflow driven scheduling of calibration and routing of calibration requests and work
orders to authorized personnel will be predictable and consistent.

2. MetricStream
Using the MetricStream Training Management module, the organization will be able to build an
Why MetricStream effective training management process to ensure that all personnel are trained to adequately perform
their jobs and to constantly monitor the effectiveness of training. The process will systematically
Complete solution set with support for all quality identify training needs, organize courses and maintain the appropriate education level and skill set in
processes relating to ISO 9000 compliance the organization.
Extensible platform with flexibility to support industry Implementation of the Issue Management and CAPA Management modules will accelerate case clo-
regulations like FERC, NERC and SOX sures and action plan implementations and provide complete visibility into issue review cycle times,
open CAPAs, repeat issues, average closure times, etc. bringing out trends for proactive preventive
Powerful reporting with executive dashboards for actions. With the Audit Management module the ESD group will ensure consistency in meeting the
analytics and trending internal standards and requirements by conducting regular quality and compliance audits.
Embedded best practices ready to be used out-of-
the-box The utility is confident that quality management will take a different shape and form with much less
energy spent on making the process work. The focus will shift to improving process and quality
Flexibility to meet specific requirements and adapt to metrics that impact the customer the most. MetricStream solution will tie together all the loose ends
changing business processes of the quality processes by providing an integrated platform based solution.
“MetricStream solutions provide out-of-the-box capabilities for the ISO 9000 standards.
We are using these effectively for an accelerated implementation to meet our aggressive
timetable leading to the ISO certification.” says the spokesperson of the Company.
“Powerful reporting and dashboards was a key factor in our selection of MetricStream”, says the ISO
9000 program manager at the utility. At a click of a button, managers will have access to reports
showing open cases, closed issues and recent activities. Scheduled reports such as activities past
due or due in the next 10 days will reach managers desktop automatically. When heading for a meet-
ing, quality managers can quickly run and print the summary report with the history of an issue and
make the discussions more productive.
“In our current paper-based system, we have to physically move around papers and files; and only one
person can work on a case at a time”, says the program manager. MetricStream is providing a col-
laborative environment where anyone can access any information anytime (based on authorizations)
and team members in different locations can work simultaneously on a case.
For more information, visit
www.metricstream.com
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